What Is the Farthest You Have Ever Traveled?

One way, by auto, from Elmira, New York to Tucson, Arizona is two thousand, three hundred nine and six-tenths miles. Double that if a round trip.

One way, by plane, from Tucson, Arizona to Tampa, Florida, is one thousand seven hundred twenty-five miles. Double that if a round trip.

One way, by plane, from Tucson, Arizona to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is one thousand eight hundred three miles. Double that if a round trip.

One way, by plane, from Tucson, Arizona to Washington, DC, is one thousand nine hundred fifty-one miles. Double that if a round trip.

One way, by spaceship, from Tucson, Arizona, to the moon on average is two hundred thirty-eight thousand eight hundred fifty-five miles. Double that if a round trip. This is more of a mental trip.

One way, by spaceship, from Tucson, Arizona, to the sun is ninety-three million (93,000,000) miles. Double that if a round trip. This is more of a mental trip.

One way, by spaceship, from Tucson, Arizona to the nearest star (which technically is a sun) but Proxima Centauri is 25,300,000,000,000 miles or 4.3 light years. Double that if a round trip. This is more of a mental trip.

The moving distance from Earth to the edge of the observable universe is about 14.26 giga parsecs (46.5 billion light-years or 4.40×1026 m) in any direction. And expanding.

In my mind’s eye, I have journeyed through time and space, encountering strangers—some kind, others hiding cruel intentions. I’ve wandered through landscapes born of imagination, so vivid they blur the line between dream and memory. I wake wondering: are these echoes of previous events, fragments of a forgotten past, or glimpses into another life? A multiverse. A life once lived.

Perhaps…